For our final literature circle, we finished The Short Bus by reading part three. In the beginning of this section, Jon picks up a 15 year old boy named Miles Davis, or Alec. It is so sad how the comments from his peers in the past changed Miles' whole personality. Miles is a very smart kid with a high IQ but has little phonetic awareness. His math teacher that failed him appalled me when she laughed at Miles' dream and preceded to tell the whole class how his mom does his homework only because he can't write himself. I honestly just can't understand what goes through all these people's minds when they say such hateful things. Later on Jon visited Jeff Woodhead. Jeff would time everything in his life and keep a journal of how long he took to do certain tasks. Jon tried to diagnose his problem at first until he realized that there is no word to describe Jeff's problem. It is just a part of who he is and you just accept it and live with it. The conclusion to this book tied the points of the whole story together very nicely and brought everything to a close. Throughout Jonathans whole journey with his bus, he was solely focused on hearing different stories and figuring out what was "wrong" or different with these people. Everyone he talked to along the way, especially his Uncle Bill, made him finally realize that everyone is different. The word normal is mainly a personal opinion and there is no true definition for a normal person. Everyone has their differences, some are just bigger than others. However, Jon discovered life is all about accepting yourself and accepting other people for who they are despite their problems.
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